


Just a Talk

by antimorston



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Sappy, and john plays matchmaker of course, arthur and john are brothers, theyre in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 12:03:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18738625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antimorston/pseuds/antimorston
Summary: "I can talk to you about this, right?""I ain’t quite sure what ‘this’ is, but you can talk about anything you’d like with me.”





	Just a Talk

**Author's Note:**

> will i ever stop writing charthur? no

It all started with a party, something to do with Sean. Arthur was sitting by the fire, stealing wistful glances to his left, where Charles sat cross legged on the ground, a cluster of arrows next to him as he carefully cleaned them one by one. He hummed along with one of Javier’s songs, closing his eyes and leaning just a little bit closer to the flames. His face lit up with golden rays, and Arthur couldn’t help but to stare, wide eyed, at his beauty. His rounded face was always so gorgeous, but the way the dim light washed over the scar on his cheek, his dark eyes, his soft lips, and every other detail of his statuesque face made Arthur’s heart drop to the very pits of his stomach. He looked away almost violently, blinking quickly to ground himself. Everyone around him was happily muttering along with Javier’s Spanish, unbothered that they had no clue what he was saying. But Arthur? Arthur was combusting. He had feelings that he knew he could never express, and even if Charles _somehow_ felt the same, that would never be _safe_ to express. He let a shiver run through him slowly as he reached for John’s moonshine.

“Hey!” John shouted, hand wobbly as he pointed at Arthur. “Give that back!”

“Sorry, asshole. Need this.” Arthur took a long swig, feeling the warmth curl up through his stomach, and handed the jug back to his fuming little brother.

“I know where you sleep,” John slurred, slumping back against his stool.

“And I could kill you in my sleep,” Arthur replied. Falling back into his bickering with John helped take some of the pressure off of his heart. “Don’t make it too easy for me,” he finished.

John hissed something else out, but it appeared that he was too drunk to actually make coherent words anymore, so Arthur ignored him. He glanced over at Charles one last time, the moonshine finally starting to loosen up his muscles, and stood, making his way back to his tent on unstable feet. He collapsed into bed, letting his loneliness consume him from the inside out. He was woken not much later, a large, dark form outlined over his bed by the dying fire.

“Arthur, you awake?” It was Charles, his hand on Arthur’s shoulder and his eyes wide.

Arthur shot up, his heart racing. “Is something wrong?” His hand reached for his gun, but Charles only chuckled and stopped the movement. Arthur looked down at the way Charles was so nonchalantly holding his wrist, and he almost wanted to throw up. There were too many feelings for him to do just about anything except blink up at the man who he was surely falling in love with.

“No, no,” Charles assured him. “I just need to talk to you.”

“You wanna talk to _me_?” Arthur murmured, swinging his legs off of the bed and shoving them into his boots. “Something must be wrong.” Charles chuckled, and Arthur’s heart stopped dead. Even in the dark, he was the most beautiful man Arthur had ever seen.

“No, I promise,” he said. “Want to take a ride?”

“Always,” Arthur responded, not sure what else he could say.

Charles seemed to know where he wanted to go, leading Taima at a slow trot all of the way through Twin Stack Pass. He was silent the entire way, making nervousness climb up Arthur’s throat like a thick vine wrapping around his windpipe. After veering off of the path, he slowed Taima to a stop next to one of the Stacks.

“Nice view,” Arthur murmured, pulling his horse up next to Charles’s, “even at three in the morning.” Charles lowered his head as he smiled, and Arthur may have simply imagined the blush across his cheeks when he did so, but he let himself have that one, smiling back at Charles.

“So, uh,” Charles started, fiddling with his reins, “I wanted to talk to you about something.” He swallowed, so hard that Arthur could see his Adam’s apple bob.

His heart was thundering so loud that he had no clue he had actually responded until Charles looked up at him. His eyes were half closed, a nervousness lurking in them that Arthur had never before seen. His own eyes probably matched that expression, but it made him feel better that whatever Charles was about to say, it probably wasn’t an accusation of any kind, like Arthur had expected. After a tense few moments, Arthur’s horse shifted beneath him, making him break Charles’s gaze.

“She’s probably tired,” he said, willing to say just about anything to break their silence.

“Yeah, it’s late,” Charles agreed. “We should go back, forget I said anything.” He started to pull the reins back, turning Taima away, but a sudden burst of courage brought Arthur forward, his hand catching on Charles’s sleeve. He stopped to look back at Arthur, and he was definitely blushing now, something that Arthur thought he would never have the pleasure of witnessing, though he couldn’t quite find it in himself to enjoy it with how goddamn scared he was.

“Stay,” he requested. Letting go of Charles’s sleeve, he slid off of his horse, feet landing in a cloud of dust. “They can rest just fine if we’re not on them.” Charles smiled, his expression still nervous, but not as much as it had been. He joined Arthur on the ground, biting at his lower lip as he let go of Taima’s reins. Arthur was immediately enraptured with the simple movement, watching Charles’s teeth catch at the skin that he imagined to be softer than the finest silk. He wanted to feel them against his own so badly that it hurt, the yearning in his chest almost outweighing his better judgement. As he stared, nearly unabashedly, Charles was drawing in slow breaths, almost as if he was trying to work up the courage to do something.

“I can talk to you about this, right?” He asked suddenly, his dark eyes shining in the moonlight.

“I ain’t quite sure what ‘this’ is,” Arthur began, tilting his head to the side, “but you can talk about anything you’d like with me.” Before this, he had been more worried about what Charles was going to say, and why he had decided to travel miles from camp to do so. But now, he was worried about Charles himself. He seemed to be really flustered, and Arthur just couldn’t figure out why. There was one option tugging at the very back of his mind, but it was impossible, so he did his best to keep it where it belonged.

Charles hummed, interrupting Arthur’s pondering. “Can we sit down?” He pointed at a small boulder nearby, and Arthur nodded, ignoring the tremor in Charles’s hand, for he was starting to get one of his own.

“‘Course, Charles.” Though Arthur’s anxiety levels were reaching new heights, he cared far more about Charles’s well-being than his fears, so he decided to take the role of the calm, cool, and collected best friend.

He followed Charles over to the rock, sitting slowly as he watched Charles pace a few times. He eventually sat next to Arthur, not close but not far, and took a few more breaths. “Don’t let me chicken out on this,” he said finally, so quiet that Arthur almost couldn’t hear him.

“Ain’t never seen you like this before, are you okay?” Arthur started to lean in comfortingly, not getting any of Charles’s messages at all. He was legitimately scared for his friend, and any thought he would have had about him being alone with Charles in the middle of the night became nonexistent as he watched Charles shake.

“I’ll be better once I get this off of my chest.”

Arthur’s heart hurt. “I’m all ears,” he said, voice hushed.

“Arthur, I…” Charles cut himself off, shaking his head. “I was talking to John earlier and-” He stopped again, letting out a sigh. “I really like you, in more than a friendly way. I can’t keep my eyes off of you, and you make me feel like I’m going to light on fire, and I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, but then John was drunk on his moonshine and he told me that he knew that we were together from the way we looked at each other, and I told him that we weren’t, but it got me thinking that maybe there was a chance that you’d feel the same way, and I don’t want this to ruin anything that we do have because I still really value you as a friend, and I just needed to get this all out before it ate me alive.” It took a moment for Arthur to process everything that had been said in such a short amount of time, and as he sat there, heart starting to race again, that _impossible_ option making it to the forefront of his mind, Charles stood and started to pace once more. “I understand if you _don’t_ feel the same way,” he continued, “I mean, come on.”  

Sensing that Charles was about to delve into self-deprecating territory, Arthur jumped to his feet and grabbed Charles’s shoulders, holding him steady. “Hold on, I need a second to process all of this,” he said, still obviously distracted. Half of his internal being was screaming with joy, the other half suspicious. Was he dreaming? Was this some kind of sick joke? He closed his eyes and let the waves of emotion crash over him. Happiness, confusion, happiness, dread, happiness, fear, happiness. “You ain’t lyin’?” He whispered, moving his hands to cradle the hunter’s face.

Charles sighed, seemingly prepared for a rejection. Maybe even a punch in the face to go along with it. “Would I be this close to losing my mind if I was?”

Arthur tried to smile, but he was too saddened by the resignation in the other man’s eyes. “Charles,” he whispered, “I been losin’ my mind over you for months now.”

Charles looked up at that, his eyes wide with shock.

“I feel the exact same way, and I’m glad you told me this-” Arthur leaned in closer, so his lips were almost pressed against the ones he longed for so badly “-because I would’ve never had the courage to tell you how I feel otherwise.” He closed his eyes as he focused on the feeling of Charles breathing against his lips. “Never in a million years.” He tilted his head to press their foreheads together as he had wanted to do for so long, and it immediately felt like he was _home_. Like he had been lost all of his life, and he was finally back to where he had been trying to go all of that time. Charles let out a breath, moving his hands tentatively to the back of Arthur’s neck. They paused at his hairline and stayed there, as unsure as Arthur felt. After a few minutes of standing there and just breathing, Arthur started to pull away. “I feel like I’m on fire,” he admitted, “like I can do anything.” Charles chuckled, his eyes still closed, his head leaning into Arthur’s touch.

“Me too.”

“I think I should sleep this feeling off before I do something stupid,” he added. Charles opened his eyes and blinked at Arthur as though he had just woken him from a _very_ nice dream.

“Like what?” He asked, earning a quick response.

“Like tell you I’m in love with you.”

“Are you?” His gaze softened again as he realized what Arthur was getting at.

“Don’t know yet. Probably will be soon, though, if you keep your hands on my neck like that.” He grinned at Charles, pulling him in again to press a tender kiss against his cheek. “See that? I usually wouldn’t be able to do that without moonshine in my system.”

Charles laughed before returning the kiss a little closer to home. Half on Arthur’s stubble and half on the corner of his lip, it made the both of them bust into laughter. They held onto each other as they slowly crumpled to the ground, ending up with Arthur leaning over Charles, who was flat on his back in the grass.

“I couldn’t do _this_ normally, either,” Arthur murmured before leaning in close and pressing his lips against those of soft velvet, those of a man who he had yearned for for what seemed like his entire life. Charles soon dissolved into the kiss, throwing his arms around Arthur to pull him closer. Though a bit frantic, the kiss was endlessly gentle and slow, giving the both of them the space and energy to let their hands roam. Arthur’s slid through Charles’s thick hair, while Charles ran his over Arthur’s ribs and down to his waist. Eventually, Arthur pulled away to collapse against Charles’s chest, fighting back a yawn. “You know,” he said against the hunter’s neck, “you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever met.”

“And you’re the most beautiful man _I’ve_ ever met,” Charles answered, placing a large hand on the back of Arthur’s head.

“Do you want to set up camp for the rest of the night?” Arthur asked, doing absolutely nothing to indicate that he wanted to get up.

“Don’t think there’s much night left,” Charles responded, carding his fingers through Arthur’s hair.

“Still wanna spend it with you.” The high of reciprocated _dangerous_ feelings was starting to fade, but Arthur’s confidence remained like fire in his blood. “Kinda want to spend every night of the rest of my life with you.”

Charles didn’t respond, and, worried that he’d messed up, Arthur rolled off of him to get a proper look. Charles looked on the verge of tears, stealing Arthur’s breath from his lungs. He leaned back over Charles, one hand cradling the side of his face.

“I’m sorry if I said something I shouldn’t’ve,” he whispered, closing his eyes until Charles shifted against him, moving to sit as well.

“You didn’t,” he reassured, “it’s just that-” he paused to wipe a tear away “-I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy in my life.”

Choked up, Arthur could only lean in to press their foreheads together again. “Me either.”

**Author's Note:**

> i made a [part two](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18755446/chapters/44491633)  
> [my tumblr](https://colorblindsteverogers.tumblr.com)


End file.
